With these TJ freshman grades, continue or transfer to base school?
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Anonymous
This. You all are in denial. He could get all As from now on but unless it’s Emory and he is in very hard classes, he won’t be in the top anywhere. Do you all really believe the base school kids are drooling in a corner? |
Anonymous
TJ Math gets very hard going forward. AP Biology will be hard as well. Reconsider TJ |
Anonymous
My child went from a highly regarded FCPS base HS in 9th grade to TJ in 10th. So I have a good idea of where they stack up. Absolutely zero work at home all through 9th grade and even with 2 AP's and the highest rigor possible in other courses, it was a very very easy A's all round at base HS. Child had over 100% in courses due to bonus points. At TJ child had to put in the effort to get A's. Not that base HS are any way less capable, it is just the focus is different. Lots of sports at base HS. The level of skill required is very high and child not able to make the team at base. Easily made the team at TJ. I question if they really need that level of rigor in HS. But for child it is absolutely fantastic experience especially with EC's that are not popular at base HS. |
Anonymous
See previous point. OP's kid most likely would do very well in base HS. Should be getting all A's in 10th and 11th. That would make the child at par with anyone else at base HS for those two grade levels. We dont know anything about the OP's kid and they might have a lot of other things going. I dont see any issue with getting into a very good college. |
Anonymous
Other than Emory, every college will look at the grades 9-11 when applying for admission. You have no idea if the student will do well in the base high school. This is the TJ mindset you are not getting. You are assuming that TJ was hard and he didn't do well, but base school will be easy and he will do well. Other than the fact that he is coming from TJ, what are you basing your comments that he will "most likely" do well at the base HS and "should" be getting all As there? Did she tell us anything about him, his intellect, his capabilities, his strengths, etc. that would make you say that? If he gets all As in 10th and 11th, he is then competing at his HS against kids who also got high grades in 10 and 11, but those kids also likely got all As in 9th. As for your bolded sentence above, in this college application environment, I completely disagree. Every year and grade matters except for Emory. That's it. |
Anonymous
I think we can assume they got no Cs in middle school. They are likely to do better at their base school than at TJ. You can explain away bad grades your freshman year and still get into a pretty good school. You can't explain away 4 years of Cs. |
Anonymous
Explaining away how? Kid did not do well. Kid transfers schools. Nothing makes this kid a top student at a base school filled with kids who have good grades. Someone posted showing TJ’s grade distribution. A 4.4 in 2022 was top 30% I think. That is much higher than our fcps Hs. |
Anonymous
You ignored everything I wrote about why you are assuming the student should get all As being based on no info other than he is a TJ kid. Grab a mirror. |
Anonymous
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Different perspective here. He could step back to his base school and get straight As and still not get into a top school, so why give up the learning opportunity? So many people on this board are from law, consulting, and finance where undergraduate pedigree makes a difference. If he wants to work in Silicon Valley the pedigree is completely different.
If he likes TJ, stay there, learn to work through the difficulties. Is it executive functioning, gaps in knowledge , test anxiety. IMO a C in a difficult class is far better than an easy A. He’ll enter undergraduate university with the skills and rigor required to be at the top and then be very competitive for grad school. If he is interested in computer science forget Emory or any of the schools listed here. The big tech companies in Silicon Valley will hire an undergraduate from San Jose State over any of the top ranked east coast schools including Ivy ones every time for an actual tech role. The start ups will care about his work product , ability to quickly learn new tech, come up with new approaches and demonstrated ability to innovate. TJ will give him those skills earlier. The UC and Cal state schools only factor sophomore and junior year grades. If he does really well sophomore and junior year he could get into the honors program If he does really well his first two semesters in college he can probably switch into the honors program. |
Anonymous
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Transfer back to base- not even a question.
UC’s look only at sophomore and junior year grades. So lots of time to recover good luck |
Anonymous
I am basing it on my personal experience of another highly regarded HS where we had experience. Getting an A is not something to even bother thinking about at this HS. My child's close friend is still at that HS, they compare the load levels and laugh/cry about it. Any academically inclined student or even with a parent remotely interested in studies and without a whole lot of sports can and without much effort get an A in pretty much all subjects. A C at TJ would require some effort - to my surprise after looking at the scoring rubric for a few of the classes. This effort is a bit more than what is needed for an A at base HS. If you actually look at TJ courses and how the teachers score and what they expect and compare them to what base HS expects, the difference is immense. Our 2nd child would not be applying for TJ even though our 1st child's experience at TJ was fantastic. I am not dissing base HS. The academics at TJ are at a whole different level - first year undergraduate is pretty much covered if you take the most rigorous level possible at TJ. I dont see why we need to do that if someone is not so inclined. It is good for kids who are very good academically and many of their EC's and interests are academic as well which makes TJ not a burden. My 2nd child has a lot of non-academic interests and TJ would not be a good fit. Base HS it is. So not putting down base HS at all. |
Anonymous
So you extrapolated that to apply to all HSs? It is definitely not true at many. Again, if 30-40% of juniors have a 4.4 or above, TJ isn’t stingy with grading. |
Anonymous
So you extrapolated that to apply to all HSs? It is definitely not true at many. There are only 2 high schools that are rated/considered by many to be more rigorous than the HS I am referring to. So that is a pretty good expectation. Unless OP's child is going to one of these two schools, what I said would hold true. Again, if 30-40% of juniors have a 4.4 or above, TJ isn’t stingy with grading. 30%-40% of juniors do not have a GPA of 4.4 or more. This data is not public but have plenty of anecdotal information to think that the above is false. You must have absolutely no clue of TJ if you believe something like that. Take one class for example, AP Computer Science A vs the equivalent class at TJ. The material for AP Computer Science A is covered within the first 2 months of school at TJ. The next several months are spent learning data structures. Most of this material is learnt in college during the 2nd semester for a CS major. So someone with a C at TJ in this class would easily get an A at base HS. Base HS is simply watered down academically in nearly all subjects compared to TJ. The above is one example. |
Anonymous
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As I mentioned I am not trying to bash base HS. My 2nd child would be going to base HS.
Unless you have a child at TJ and you are interested and actually look at the course material, you would not know how in depth and rigorous the courses are at TJ compared to base HS. |
Anonymous
Yes, but this kid is not getting a 4.4 at TJ. They might get a 4.4 at their base school, even with their freshman Cs. These kids were likely among the top 10-20% at their base schools. |